This application is the national phase under 35 U.S.C. xc2xa7371 of prior PCT International Application No. PCT/JP98/01976 which has an International filing date of Apr. 30, 1998 which designated the United States of America.
1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a transportation apparatus of irregular-formed vessels, at a connection part between irregular-formed bag making machines and a filling apparatus, for combining a plurality of irregular-formed bag making machines having a relatively small production capacity with filling apparatus having a relatively high processing capacity, while feeding the irregular-formed vessels, an apparatus and a method for feeding unfilled plate-formed irregular vessels to the filling apparatus, and to a filling apparatus of irregular vessels for filling in the unfilled irregular vessels with a liquid, followed by capping the irregular vessels.
2. Background Art
Since an irregular-formed vessel having a plug (that is, a bag-like vessel like a pouch) has an irregular form of the vessel itself, when handling the irregular vessel, the mouth opening is small in diameter, which is difficult to grip.
Then, to facilitate mechanical handling of irregular-formed vessel having such a mouth plug, a method is disclosed, for example, in Japanese Utility Model Publication 5-11183, in which a plurality of flange parts are provided at intervals at the mouth plug part of the vessel, the flange parts are engaged in an opening groove part of a C-sectioned elongate channel tool, so that the irregular-formed vessel is hang down on the channel tool through the flange part of the mouth plug part, thereby achieving storage and transportation of irregular-formed vessels.
Such an irregular-formed vessel (hereinafter called as xe2x80x9cpouchxe2x80x9d), after being produced by an irregular bag making machine, is fed to a filling apparatus where it is filled in with a predetermined content. The flange part can also be utilized when the pouch is carried from the bag making machine to the filling apparatus.
As described above, in transportation of the pouch from the bag making machine to the filling apparatus, for example, when the filling apparatus is low in capacity (30 to 50 bags/min), the bag making position and the filling position are separate from each other, and transportation between both positions is carried out using a transportation tool and a delivery box.
However, when a high-capacity filling apparatus is used, since the pouch transportation cost is increased and a large storage space becomes required, a requirement is increased for placing the bag making machine and the filling apparatus at the same position which are used in combination.
Further, when a transportation tool is used in pouch transportation, a cost is required for the tool, also when charging the vessels into the machine, a manual work or an automated machine for charging are required, resulting in an increased charging cost.
Still further, when the pouch is a food containing vessel, use of a transportation tool or a delivery box in the pouch transportation is not preferable in view of sanitation, since there is a danger of contamination of the tool or delivery box during transportation.
With a view to obviate the above prior art problems, an object of the present invention is to provide an irregular-formed vessel transportation apparatus and method which combines a plurality of low-capacity bag making machines with a high-capacity filling apparatus to achieve efficient transportation of pouch from the bag making machine to the filling apparatus.
In transporting the above pouch from the bag making machine to the filling apparatus which is a continuous rotary type, the vessel feeding method is generally of a type in which a conveyor, a timing screw having a feed groove conforming to the plane shape of the pouch, and a star wheel for taking the pouch over to the filling apparatus by coinciding the timing with the timing screw are combined.
However, for an irregular shape like a pouch which changes in shape by filling in with a liquid, the bags cannot be arranged and fed by a conventional conveyor, and since the head of the pouch is small for handling by the timing screw and the body shape is irregular that cannot be handled, it is impossible to utilize the vessel feeding method by the conveyor and the timing screw.
Yet further, since the bag-formed vessel like pouch is in the form of a flat plate before filling, it has an advantage that the vessels can be stored or transported by stacking, and utilizing the feature, an apparatus is developed which uniformly arranges directions of the vessels, feeds a stack of a plurality of vessels, and feeds the vessels one by one to the filling apparatus with correct timing by a vacuum sucking disk (for example, Japanese Patent Laid-open Publications 5-170252, 6-48401).
However, although the method of feeding the stacked pouches one by one to the filling apparatus by a vacuum sucking disk or the like is easily applied to a filling apparatus of an intermittent moving type, since it does not make continuous operation, the method is difficult to be applied to a continuously rotating rotary filling apparatus.
Even if a means for taking over the pouch following the movement of the filling apparatus can be used, there are problems of a low vessel feeding speed, requiring a plurality of feeding units for a high-capacity filling apparatus, and a complex layout, resulting in a high cost.
With the aim of eliminating the above prior art problems, another object of the present invention is to provide a feeding apparatus and feeding method of irregular vessels which can achieve continuous feeding of pouches suitable for continuously rotating rotary filling apparatus.
Further, as a filling apparatus for filling in fed unfilled pouches with a liquid and capping, an intermittent rotary filling apparatus in which a liquid filling part and a cap tightening part are mounted on the outer periphery of an intermittent rotation table, and a number of pouches held on the outer periphery of the table are filled up with the liquid and capped during one turn of the table does not use a rotary joint for liquid and air piping and electrical wiring and the like is possible to perform operations such as liquid filling, capping and the like with a simple apparatus as compared with a continuous rotating rotary filling apparatus which moves smoothly at a constant speed, however, since an intermittent operation must be performed matching the pitch time with the filling operation which requires the longest time in the operations of the filling part and the cap tightening part, the intermittent filling apparatus could be used only for applications of low filling capacity.
Therefore, a filling apparatus improved for the purpose of increasing the filling capacity while making use of the advantage of intermittent rotation is disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication 59-46874. This machine is provided with a member for supporting a plurality of filling nozzles which can perform liquid filling at a time in a plurality of pouches arranged on the periphery of a round table, the filling nozzle member can be moved along with the table during the time when the filling nozzle member moves from a specific start position on the table to an end point, after the filling nozzle is pulled out from the pouch at the end point on the table, the filling nozzle member is returned to the start position, where the filling nozzle is inserted into the pouch to begin liquid filling so that filling is completed until reaching the end point, and a sufficient filling time is ensured even when the pitch time of intermittent movement of the table is short, thereby improving the filling capacity.
As a filling apparatus for a pouch which changes in shape during liquid filling, there have been known a filling apparatus using an intermittent rotation table of a low speed (50 bags/min) as a transportation means as described above, or one which is disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication 59-46874 using a shortened pitch time of intermittent movement of the table as described above, however, although these are simple in structure and low-cost, since the transportation table makes an intermittent movement, high-speed intermittent movement cannot be performed to avoid liquid scattering during pouch transportation or falling down of pouch due to vibration, therefore improvement of filling capacity is limited.
With a view to eliminate the above prior art problems, is a primary object of the present invention to provide a filling apparatus for irregular-formed vessels which eliminates intermittent movement of the transportation table and is high in filling capacity with a simple structure.
The irregular-formed vessel transportation apparatus according to the present invention comprises a plurality of bag making machines for continuously producing irregular-formed vessels each having a flanged mouth plug, a plurality of transportation troughs connected respectively to the plurality of bag making machines, a single-row transportation trough for combinedly transporting the irregular-formed vessels discharged from the respective transportation troughs in a single row, a plurality of relay movable troughs disposed corresponding to the plurality of transportation troughs, inlets being connected with outlets of corresponding transportation troughs by a predetermined movement for containing a predetermined amount of irregular-formed vessels from the corresponding transportation trough, and outlets being connected with an inlet of the single-row transportation trough by another predetermined movement for discharging the contained irregular-formed vessels to the single-row transportation trough, wherein when an outlet of any one of the plurality of relay movable troughs is connected with an inlet of the single-row transportation trough, movement of the plurality of relay movable troughs is cooperatively performed so that inlets of other relay movable troughs of the plurality of the relay movable troughs are connected with outlets of the transportation troughs respectively corresponding to the relay movable troughs.
The irregular-formed vessel transportation apparatus according to the present invention comprises a first bag making machine and a second bag making machine for continuously producing irregular-formed vessels each having a flanged mouth plug, a first transportation trough connected with the first bag making machine, a second transportation trough connected with the second bag making machine, a single-row transportation trough for combinedly transporting the irregular-formed vessels discharged from the first transportation trough and irregular-formed vessels discharged from the second transportation trough in a single row, a first relay movable trough having an inlet capable of being connected with outlet of the first transportation trough by a predetermined movement for containing a predetermined amount of irregular-formed vessels from the first transportation trough and having an outlet capable of being connected with inlet of the single-row transportation trough by another predetermined movement for discharging the contained irregular-formed vessels to the single-row transportation trough, and a second relay movable trough having an outlet capable of being connected with inlet of the single-row transportation trough by another predetermined movement for discharging the contained irregular-formed vessels to the single-row transportation trough, wherein the first relay movable trough and the second relay movable trough are constructed to cooperate with each other so that the second relay movable trough and the single-row transportation trough are connected when the first transportation trough is connected with the first relay movable trough and the first relay movable trough and the single-row transportation trough are connected when the second transportation trough is connected with the second relay movable trough.
The irregular-formed vessel transportation method according to the present invention uses a plurality of bag making machines for continuously producing irregular-formed vessels each having a flanged mouth plug, a plurality of transportation troughs connected respectively to the plurality of bag making machines, a single-row transportation trough for combinedly transporting the irregular-formed vessels discharged from the respective transportation troughs in a single row, a plurality of relay movable troughs disposed corresponding to the plurality of transportation troughs capable of containing a predetermined amount of irregular-formed vessels from the corresponding transportation trough and discharging the contained irregular-formed vessels to the single-row transportation trough, wherein one of the plurality of relay movable troughs is selected, the relay movable trough is moved to connect the output of the relay movable trough to the inlet of the single-row transportation trough to discharge the irregular-formed vessels contained in the relay movable trough to the single-row transportation trough, other of the plurality of the relay movable troughs are appropriately moved to be connected with output of the corresponding transportation trough for containing a predetermined amount of irregular-formed vessels from the transportation trough in the relay movable trough, while switching a relay movable trough selected from the plurality of relay movable troughs to be connected to the single-row transportation trough, the operation is repeated to successively transport a predetermined amount of irregular-formed vessels from the respective transportation troughs through the single-row transportation trough.
The irregular-formed vessel transportation method according to the present invention uses a first bag making machine and a second bag making machine for continuously producing irregular-formed vessels each having a flanged mouth plug, a first transportation trough connected with the first bag making machine, a second transportation trough connected with the second bag making machine, a single-row transportation trough for combinedly transporting the irregular-formed vessels discharged from the first transportation trough and irregular-formed vessels discharged from the second transportation trough in a single row, a first relay movable trough having an inlet capable of being connected with outlet of the first transportation trough by a predetermined movement for containing a predetermined amount of irregular-formed vessels from the first transportation trough and having an outlet capable of being connected with inlet of the single-row transportation trough by another predetermined movement for discharging the contained irregular-formed vessels to the single-row transportation trough, and a second relay movable trough having an outlet capable of being connected with inlet of the single-row transportation trough by another predetermined movement for discharging the contained irregular-formed vessels to the single-row transportation trough, wherein in a first operation, by a predetermined movement, an inlet of the first relay movable trough is connected to an output of the first transportation trough to contain a predetermined amount of irregular-formed vessels from the first transportation trough and, at the same time, an output of the second relay movable trough is connected to an inlet of the single-row transportation trough to discharge the irregular-formed vessels contained in the second relay movable trough to the single-row transportation trough, then, in a second operation, by another predetermined movement, the outlet of the first relay movable trough is connected to the inlet of the single-row transportation trough to discharge the irregular-formed vessels contained in the first relay movable trough to the single-row transportation trough and, at the same time, the inlet of the second relay movable trough is connected to the outlet of the second transportation trough to contain a predetermined amount of irregular-formed vessels from the second transportation trough into the second relay movable trough, and the first operation and the second operation are repeated to successively transport a predetermined amount of irregular-formed vessels from the first transportation trough and a predetermined amount of irregular-formed vessels from the second transportation trough in alternation through the single-row transportation trough.
Therefore, since transportation tools or delivery boxes as used in the prior art become needless, and a manual work or an automated charging machine for charging the vessels in the machine when using transportation tools or delivery boxes also becomes needless, and the bag making machine can be connected direct to the filling apparatus, the charging cost can be reduced and, by surrounding the entire apparatus by a clean booth, filling of the content can be performed under good sanitation. Therefore, when an irregular-formed vessel (pouch) with a wood plug is used for filling with a food, concern in sanitation can be eliminated. Further, when the vessel handling machine of the present invention is used midway in the transportation trough, a plurality of bag making machines can be connected directly to the filling apparatus, when a vibration transportation trough is used, since the vibration transportation trough has a vessel accumulation function, a small trouble in vessel transportation during operation can be eliminated.
The irregular-formed vessel feeding apparatus according to the present invention comprises a transportation trough for hanging down a mouth plug flange part of an irregular-formed vessel with a mouth plug and stacking the vessels arranged in a same direction of vessel bodies to transport it, a transportation disk continuously rotating in a horizontal direction for taking up the mouth plug flange part from the tip of the transportation trough and feeding the irregular-formed vessel with mouth plug to a continuously rotating rotary filling apparatus, the transportation disk having an asymptotic plane of a shape of cutting in towards the center side of the disk and smoothly changing to a spiral curve from the cut-in center-side bottom to the outer edge, a hanging step formed for taking up the mouth plug flange part, a vessel neck pressing lever movably disposed for pressing the mouth plug flange part to hold the mouth plug flange part in cooperation with the hanging step, and a holding spring disposed between the transportation disk and the vessel neck pressing lever for urging the vessel neck pressing lever towards a holding direction of the mouth plug flange part, wherein the hanging step and the set of the vessel neck pressing lever and the holding spring have a same pitch as that of a gripper of the continuously rotating rotary filling apparatus, and at the feeding position of irregular-formed vessels with mouth plug to the continuously rotating rotary filling apparatus, a holding release cam for moving the vessel neck pressing lever in a holding release direction of the mouth plug flange part is mounted on the continuously rotating rotary filling apparatus.
In the feeding method of a irregular-formed vessel with a mouth plug according to the present invention, the irregular-formed vessel with mouth plug taken up at a mouth plug flange part from a transportation trough for hanging the mouth plug flange part and stacking and transporting the vessels with vessel bodies arranged in a direction to a continuously rotating rotary filling apparatus using a transportation disk, the irregular-formed vessels with mouth plug fed to the continuously rotating rotary filling apparatus are taken up by a hanging step provided on the transportation disk having an asymptotic plane of a shape of smoothly changing to a spiral curve, then a vessel neck pressing lever movably mounted on the transportation disk for pressing the mouth plug flange part is pressed towards the mouth plug flange part by a holding spring disposed between the transportation disk and the vessel neck pressing lever to hold the mouth plug flange part inbetween, after that, when the irregular-formed vessel with mouth plug reaches a feeding position to the continuously rotating rotary filling apparatus, the vessel neck pressing lever is moved in a holding release direction by a holding release cam mounted on the continuously rotating rotary filling apparatus to feed the irregular-formed vessel with mouth plug to the continuously rotating rotary filling apparatus.
Therefore, with the feeding apparatus and method of irregular-formed vessels with mouth plug according to the present invention, since a vessel having a small head and an irregular-shaped body like the irregular-formed vessel with mouth plug cannot hang on a timing screw, although it has been difficult to feed the vessels with a correct feed timing to the continuously rotating rotary filling apparatus while maintaining the arranged direction of the vessels, after the vessel is fed in a pressed state while the mouth plug part being guided by the transportation trough, and the vessels are taken up at the mouth plug part from the transportation disk and fed one by one into the filling apparatus, a smooth vessel feed is possible as with the timing screw, and continuous feed of irregular-formed vessels with mouth plug to the continuously rotating rotary filling apparatus can be positively performed.
Further, since the mouth plug part of the vessel is held by the opening/closing vessel neck pressing lever, the direction of the irregular-formed vessel with mouth plug can be maintained, protecting the mouth plug part of the vessel from deviating to the asymptotic plane of the transportation disk, and the irregular-formed vessels be stably fed at a high speed.
The feeding apparatus of mouth-plugged irregular-formed vessels according to the present invention comprises a vessel sensor for detecting loaded state of the irregular-formed vessel in the transportation trough, and a vessel stopper for stopping forward movement of the vessel by pressing the vessel neck immediately before the head vessel in the transportation trough until the loaded state in the transportation trough by the detection signal of the vessel sensor is a predetermined state.
Therefore, with the feeding apparatus of mouth-plugged irregular-formed vessels according to the present invention, there is an advantage that by detecting the number of vessels on the transportation trough using the vessel sensor to control open/close timing of the vessel sensor, feeding pressure of the vessel row is regulated in an appropriate range for positive vessel feeding, thereby preventing generation of an excessive pressure towards the asymptotic plane of the transportation disk.
With the filling apparatus of irregular-formed vessels according to the present invention, the irregular-formed vessels continuously fed by the vessel feeding means are gripped at a constant pitch on the circumference of the continuous rotation table rotating on the horizontal plane, the irregular-formed vessels are filled up with a liquid, and filled vessels are discharged by vessel delivery means, comprising:
an intermittent swinging table disposed above the continuous rotation table and having a plurality of filling nozzles at a same pitch as the constant pitch, filling means for pushing out the liquid from the filling nozzles, vertical moving means for vertically moving the filling nozzles;
a continuously rotating outside hollow shaft to which the continuous rotation table is mounted;
a hollow shaft disposed concentrically with the outside hollow shaft for reciprocally rotating the intermittent swinging table;
forward movement of the intermittent swinging table by the hollow shaft synchronizes with rotation of the continuous rotation table, and return movement thereof is a quick return to the initial position of the gripped vessel of the continuous rotation table to coincide with the filling nozzle position;
the vertical moving means is operated by a vertical moving shaft penetrating in the hollow shaft, moves down in the forward movement of the intermittent swinging table, and moves up in the quick return, in the continuous rotation of the continuous rotation table, follow rotation of moving-down liquid filling nozzle and quick return to the initial position by upward movement are possible by the compact mechanism, thereby enabling high-speed continuous filling with a simple mechanism without vibration of liquid surface as seen in the intermittent operation.
With the filling apparatus of irregular-formed vessels according to the present invention, a capping device is disposed on the side of the continuous rotation table for supplying a vessel cap, a capping head is provided on the intermittent swinging table at a symmetrical position with the filling nozzle with respect to the concentric hollow shaft penetrating the outside hollow shaft, the capping head is provided in the same pitch as the gripped vessel of the continuous rotation table, the cap put on the vessel by the capping device mounted outside is chucked by the capping head moved down by the filling nozzle vertical moving means, after being tightened, moved up by quick return, repeating intermittent tightening, wherein the capping device is mounted on the intermittent swinging table opposite to the filling nozzle, which can also be used as the intermittent swinging table, enabling a simple structure, cables of the drive motor for rotating the capping head and the like can be disposed on the upper part and are not rotated, therefore complex structures such as rotary joint and slip joint are needless, resulting in simplified structure and reduced cost.
With the filling apparatus of irregular-formed vessels according to the present invention, the hollow shaft is connected to the outside hollow shaft drive means through an oscillating cam unit, the vertical moving shaft is linked to the outside hollow shaft drive means through the vertical moving cam, and the intermittent swinging table is connected to the vertical moving shaft, since the three operations of the rotation of the continuous rotation table, follow rotation/quick return and vertical movement of the intermittent swinging table are mechanically connected, they can be exactly synchronized, and drive of the swinging table can be optimized in terms of speed and acceleration.
With the filling apparatus of irregular-formed vessels according to the present invention, vertical movement of the vertical moving shaft is transmitted to a reverse rotation lever rotatably supported on the supporting shaft equal-number mounted to the filling nozzle and the capping head in the horizontal circumferential direction on the lower part of the intermittent swinging table, inside end part being connected through a disk mounted to the upper end part of the vertical moving shaft and a pin joint bar in the vertical direction, and the outside end part being provided with a roller, and to the filling nozzle and capping head vertically slidable on a vertical guide engaged with the roller of the reverse rotation lever and mounted on the swinging table, since in the vertical movement, weight of the drive shaft part, weight of the filling nozzles beyond the load reversing lever and the capping head are canceled, thereby enabling operation of reduced load variation.
With the filling apparatus of irregular-formed vessels according to the present invention, when using an irregular-formed vessel having a hard stepped neck for holding, a gripper for holding the vessel neck is mounted on the continuous rotation table, the vessel feeding apparatus support the vessel neck by an inclined parallel guide bar, takes out the vessels one by one by a vibration trough having a vibrator and a star wheel driven in synchronization from the same drive shaft as the continuous rotation table, and transfers it to the continuous rotation table, a filled vessel discharging apparatus takes out one by one by a star wheel synchronizedly driven from the same drive means as the continuous rotation table to transfer to a discharge conveyor, therefore, handling at a high speed is possible, the vibration trough has the same role as the screw of the prior art, and even a small article that cannot be handled by the screw can be handled.
With the filling apparatus of irregular-formed vessels according to the present invention, a rinser for spraying clean water is disposed between the liquid filling section outside of the continuous rotation table and the capping section for cleaning the outside of continuously transported filled vessels, or an ink-jet printing apparatus is disposed at a position immediately after vessel feeding of the continuous rotation table.
With the filling apparatus of irregular-formed vessels according to the present invention, the filling means is provided with an air passage open to the internal liquid passage, air piping of each filling nozzle is connected to a manifold mounted on the intermittent rotation table, between the manifold and an outer mounting member is connected with a flexible air piping, a 3-way valve for switching a vacuum air piping and a compressed air piping is:connected to the outer mounting member, air in the vessel is evacuated to a negative pressure, after closing the air piping opening by compressed air, and a constant amount of liquid is charged into the vessel by measuring piston operation, filling is possible by a smaller number of filling nozzles and measuring units as compared with a continuous rotation filler, and, since the measuring part and the tank part are separately disposed, accessibility for cleaning and maintenance is good. Further, since a longer filling time is available compared with the prior art intermittent filler, high-capacity filling is possible.